This latest puzzle mystery from the author of Death and the Conjuror and The Murder Wheel takes stage magician sleuth Joseph Spector to a grand estate in the English countryside.

Victor Silvius has spent nine years as an inmate at The Grange, a private sanatorium, for the crime of attacking judge Sir Giles Drury. Now, the judge's wife, Lady Elspeth Drury, believes that Silvius is the one responsible for a series of threatening letters her husband has recently received. Eager to avoid the scandal that involving the local police would entail, Lady Elspeth seeks out retired stage magician Joseph Spector, whose discreet involvement in a case Sir Giles recently presided over greatly impressed her.

Meanwhile, Miss Caroline Silvius is disturbed after a recent visit to her brother Victor, convinced that he isn't safe at The Grange. Someone is trying to kill him and she suspects the judge, who has already made Silvius' life a living hell, may be behind it. Caroline hires Inspector George Flint of Scotland Yard to investigate.

The two cases collide at Marchbanks, the Drury family seat of over four hundred years, where a series of unnerving events interrupt the peace and quiet of the snowy countryside. A body is discovered in the middle of a frozen pond without any means of getting there and a rifle is fired through a closed window, killing a man but not breaking the glass. Only Spector and his mastery of the art of misdirection can uncover the logical explanations for these impossible crimes.

An atmospheric and puzzling traditional mystery that pays homage to the greatest writers of the genre's Golden Age, Cabaret Macabre is the third book in Tom Mead's Joseph Spector series, hailed by the Wall Street Journal as "a recipe for pure nostalgic pleasure." The books can be enjoyed in any order.

About The Author

Tom Mead

Tom Mead is an author, translator, and aficionado of Golden Age crime fiction. He is the creator of the Joseph Spector locked room mystery series, which has been translated into ten languages (and counting), and is soon to be adapted for the screen. His debut novel, Death and the Conjuror, was nominated for the Capital Crime Award for Debut Novel of the Year and the Historical Writers' Association Debut Crown. It was also named one of the best mysteries of the year by The Guardian and Publishers Weekly. Its sequel, The Murder Wheel, was named one of the Best Traditional Mysteries of 2023 by Crimereads and the Daily Telegraph, as well as nominated for a Capital Crime Award and longlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger Award. His third novel, Cabaret Macabre was published in August 2024, along with a collection of short stories, The Indian Rope Trick and Other Violent Entertainments, in November 2024.

Product Details

Publisher: The Mysterious Press (July 1, 2025)
Length: 312 pages
ISBN13: 9781613166734

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Raves and Reviews

"For the lover of locked room mysteries, for the devotee of Golden Age tales, for the book connoisseur whose heart leaps at the sight of maps and diagrams, and—above all—for the reader who won't be satisfied with anything less than a twisty and ingenious plot: Ladies and gentlemen, I offer you the incomparable Tom Mead."

– G.M. Malliet, Agatha Award-winning author of the St Just and Max Tudor mysteries

"I love the way that [Tom Mead] embraces the Golden Age with such ingenuity and wit! . . . The twisted and complex puzzle totally foxed me."

– Joy Ellis, UK #1 bestselling author

"Ingenious . . . Mead hides all the clues in plain sight, constructing a fair-play puzzle that will delight and challenge readers who love pitting their own wits against the author's. It's another crackerjack entry in an exceptional series."

– Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW

"Mind-bogglingly complex . . . A lovely valentine to Mead's idol, John Dickson Carr, and even more to Clayton Rawson's tales of The Great Merlini."

– Kirkus

"A delightful golden-age puzzle . . . There are Agatha Christie-like twists aplenty and a final scene that Patricia Highsmith might have imagined. All in all, if you're looking for diversion—and these days who isn't?—this latest novel in Mead's Joseph Spector series will do the trick."

– Washington Post

"Thread by thread, the brilliant Spector unties a Gordian knot of illusions to a riveting conclusion. Cabaret Macabre is wonderfully intriguing on the first read, but to fully appreciate Mead's complex plotting, it is well worth a second read."

– The Big Thrill

"Nothing and no one are what they seem to be in Cabaret Macabre. This simply ups the ante for Tom Mead, who sits back and composes a mystery that is beyond clever and will make you think about what you've just read long after the cases are solved."

– BookReporter

"[A] masterfully written murder mystery. Tom Mead is at the pinnacle of his powers as he adapts an obscure classic play, transforming it into a whip-smart whodunnit set in the 1930s."

– Criminal Element

"Filled with often cryptic allusions to classical detective fiction, Cabaret Macabre is a mind-bending puzzler that had me baffled up to the end."

– Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

"An excellent golden age country house mystery . . . [Tom Mead's] best one yet."

– Ragnar Jónasson, internationally bestselling author of Reykjavík: A Crime Story